http://www.college-pathways.com/blog/rss/feedsAt College Pathways we want to make the college admission process an exhilarating and gratifying transition for you and your family.Tue, 28 Apr 2026 17:49:33 -0700http://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/the-politics-of-student-loan-debt-by-steve-burleigh-1http://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/the-politics-of-student-loan-debt-by-steve-burleigh-1 The Politics of Student Loan Debt By Steve Burleigh Among the many issues that the Democratic presidential contenders debated last night in Miami was the increasing burden of student college debt in the U.S, which currently stands at about $1.6 trillion. The average debt for college graduates is about $29,000, but the average debt for African American graduates is more than $34,000. Compare this to American auto debt, $1.1 trillion, and lower total U.S. consumer credit card debt which is $1.04 trillion. Years ago, it would have been unthinkable that U.S. credit card debt would be surpassed by college indebtedness. Several of the candidates have suggested various methods for dealing with the problem, ranging from complete loan forgiveness to free college tuition at public colleges, and some candidates propose a combination. One thing all candidates agree on is that paying for these ambitious proposals will require higher taxes. Elizabeth Warren proposes a wealth tax on individuals, and Bernie Sanders proposes a tax on Wall Street transactions. The issue is bound to pick up steam not only in the upcoming presidential primaries, but also in the general election where Donald Trump was forced to pay a $25 million fine for bilking students out of their money in his Trump University scam. The Washington Post posted a video explanation of the some of the Democratic candidates’ approaches to free college and debt forgiveness. For a slightly more detailed explanation check out this NPR article, Democratic Presidential Contenders Propose Free College and Student Loan Forgiveness. College debt is an enormous problem confronting voters across the entire socio-economic spectrum regardless of age or race. The current college loan system preys on families who fall into the financial aid income/asset donut hole. They make too much and have too many assets to qualify for need based financial aid, but they lack the resources to pay for a traditional four year college education. What do these folks do? They borrow tens of thousands, often hundreds of thousands, to make college happen for their children. The issue has suddenly moved off the financial pages and landed smack in the middle of the presidential election zeitgeist. Thu, 27 Jun 2019 13:58:00 -0700http://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/desperate-housewiveshttp://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/desperate-housewives Desperate Housewives By Steve Burleigh Most of you know me as an award winning actor/writer/producer whose legacy is already emblazoned in the pantheon of entertainment narcissists and bloviators. But some of you may not know that I am also a well established college counselor, or as we refer to ourselves to sound more legit with rich white folks, independent educational consultant. Pretty hoity-toity stuff. And the last 24 hours has been a real whirlwind. Since the feds made Bill Singer do what Rod Rosenstein only “joked” about doing, i.e., wear a wire exposing the frailties of our most vulnerable population, I‘ve barely had time to cook the books over at my personal Side Door College Admission Foundation. My motto: “If they said no at the front door, and no at the back door, honey, use the Side Door.” Bill was doing some important work over at Edge Admissions and Key Foundation with desperate housewives and pampered multi-millionaires who felt that generational wealth wasn’t enough to give heirs and heiresses happy faces. He assured them that money could actually buy what money can’t buy; merit - or more importantly – the Appearance of Merit. The heck with the work and talent. As Felicity and Lori will tell you, it ain’t about work or talent, it’s about getting to the red carpet, baby. What was really cool was that Bill’s methods - bribery, forgery, fraud, racketeering, mendacity, narcissism - were already familiar to his rarified customer base. We call it affirmative action for really, really rich white people. It works best when the client is a left leaning progressive/liberal with a media proclaimed moral compass who’s on right side of highly publicized social justice issues. Hypocrisy schlippocrisy! It’s a pyramid scheme built on the accepted principle that the whole damned college admissions deal is a “game”, a “corrupt game”, so let’s screw it before it screws my little girl/boy. Every spring the whines of “Not Fair!” can be heard from Beverly Hills to Park Avenue all the way to Hong Kong. So, Bill did what any smart entrepreneur would do. As they say in the underwear ads these days; he found his own solution to the problem, i.e., pluck as many eggs from the Golden Goose as possible before she wakes up and cries fowl. Now, Bill Singer’s not the only one who knows how to gouge big money out of the Fortune 500. It’s unfortunate that he snitched, but he’ll get his due; we’ll see how he does when incarcerated with the likes of Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen. I’m just disappointed that his rates were exposed. I don’t think the feds understand what a great deal Bill was giving folks. He should get his sentence reduced for being such a cut rate operator in the “cutthroat” business of college admissions, as the U.S. Attorney called it. Over here at Side Door we have our own college admission packages and, in the interest of transparency and professional scammer ethics, I’m going to publish some of our rates. I’ll dispense with the nuances and subtleties, tactics and strategies, but trust me, grades and test scores are a thing of the past. Why worry? Sign with Side Door and have a senior spring fling, worry free. “I got in! I got in! Wheee...meee…meeee…meee!” All results are guaranteed. Best of all the fee is a tax deductible contribution to the Side Door Foundation. So, let’s cut straight to what you want to know – the results and how much. Harvard - $12 million. Harvard “schmarvard” we like to say. No problem. Next fall park your Ferrari in Harvard Yard. Yale - $11.9 million. Not quite #1 but climbing the chart. Say it 3 times with me! Bulldog! Bulldog! Bow, wow, wow! Stanford - $11 million. Stash your cash at The Farm at Palo Alto where it’s always sunny, honey. USC - $10 million. Easy-peasy. Those fake test scores and Photoshopped pic of you winning the Boston Marathon are the real Trojan Horses. NYU – $10 million - Everybody’s favorite. Can you feel your Tony Award yet? You know you’re king of the hill, top of the heap so go to Tisch and get risch. (even more risch) Dartmouth - $9 million. You think Animal House was just a big Hollywood fart joke? Hit the Big Green where Beer Pong and Toga Parties were invented. You get the idea. Our only focus is finding the right college for you, the one that fits your very-very specialness, which is the one your mom and dad are willing to pay Side Door to get you into. If you really want to find out more about me check me out at www.college-pathways.com, or www.thecollegetransferguru.com. Or you can call me on my SAT phone on my yacht in the Caribbean. Steve Wed, 13 Mar 2019 17:56:00 -0700http://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/im-mad-as-hell-and-im-not-going-to-take-this-anymorehttp://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/im-mad-as-hell-and-im-not-going-to-take-this-anymore I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!By Steve BurleighHe smirks, he struts, he spouts, he swaggers. He spurts inflammatory invective; the very definition of ejaculatory rhetoric. He doesn’t respond to events; he emits. He’s not America’s leader so much as a hood ornament for America’s alt-right/anti-literacy/anti-science/neo- racist/gun toting/nativist/anti-welfare horde. He’s a chrome plated anachronism that went out of fashion about the time men stopped reading Playboy for the “interviews”, and Jim Crow was outlawed. He cannot express compassion and sympathy without reading from a crib sheet written by a sycophant. If he were a character in an Elizabethan play he’d be a low comedy, bloviating wart-hog created for the base enjoyment of illiterate groundlings. He would be comical, except that he’s a mendacious and avaricious narcissist who happens to be president. Parodies of his antics on tv comedy shows have become stale as the daily onslaught of his buffoonery has numbed us to the shock-and-awe of it all. It’s not fun anymore; we have to accept that the pendulum may never swing back to intellectual honesty and human civility. His enablers have thrown their integrity and moral compasses overboard as they pander to his ego. Grovel is more like it. Lost in the 24-hour news cycle yak-a-thon is the simple fact that he lost the election by three million votes, even with the help of the Russian government, to a woman who was universally vilified. The guy lost. Fake news! I wasn’t always mad as hell. Well, I was, but I sublimated my rage. My defense was to put on the work blinders, bury my head in the sand, and tune out the cacophony in my own echo chamber. Just don’t hit the red button; don’t start a war – please – we’ll be ok. I put the brakes on talk radio and started listening to music in my car again, stayed off Facebook, declined to participate in discussions of outrage among colleagues and friends. Anything but It. Anything but Him. Then came Parkland. Then came the murder of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Fourteen more wounded in the attack. The killer used a semi-automatic assault rifle he bought legally. The articulate and impassioned pleas for legislative sanity by students and parents in the media, in ad-hoc forums, and in government offices was/is compelling on so many levels. The argument for rational gun control measures demanded by these victims and survivors is undeniable. The courage to come together to speak truth to power in the midst of unremitting grief is inspirational. It’s heroic. It would be epic, if not for the cowardly intransigence of politicians in Tallahassee, Washington D.C., and in the White House. The killer fired his weapon for six and a half minutes. A week after the attack the Florida legislature voted down a motion to take up a bill that would ban assault rifles in less than three minutes. At a town hall meeting with survivors one week later, Florida Senator Marco Rubio refused to support a ban on assault weapons and said he intended to continue accepting money from the N.R.A. ($3.3 million in his career) and other pro-gun groups. President Trump’s big idea after his White House crib-note “listening session” was to arm teachers to transform America’s schools into hard targets. What about concerts? (Las Vegas) What about night clubs? (Orlando) What about rural churches? (Sutherland Springs) At a White House meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers he again pontificated on the guns-for-teachers idea. He says he supports increased background checks but admitted he hasn’t even read the Manchin-Toomey background check legislation that almost passed in 2013. In the face of this public health emergency his answer is to INCREASE the number of guns and gun owners. Brilliant! Let’s give everybody cancer then maybe fewer people will die from cancer. It’s dumb; it’s devious. It’s an insult to democracy; a middle finger to the bereaved. I’m mad as hell now because the magnitude of the hypocrisy demonstrated by gun-puppet politicians has risen to unfathomable levels. The kids and the parents control the message and the zeitgeist, but these guys aren’t listening. They’re cloaking themselves in a perverted reading of the Second Amendment for material and political gain. Deep Throat said follow the money, but unlike the Nixon cabal these guys are raking it in from the gun lobby right out in the open with no apologies. They are “having a conversation,” and “considering” cosmetic changes that will have little impact on gun violence or assault weapon attacks. Just last week the Florida state legislature passed a two-year assault weapon ban and then – now get this – fifteen minutes later repealed it! Instead, they voted to arm teachers in a “marshal” program. School districts must opt-in to the program. Here are some U.S. gun facts. Since 2007 at least 173 people have been killed in mass shootings in the United States involving AR-15s and other assault type rifles. Between January, 1, 2013 and February 14, 2018 there were 1,624 mass shootings (4 or more victims) in 1,870 days that resulted in 1,875 deaths and 6,848 wounded. According to a 2015 Harvard University/Northeastern University study, the most definitive portrait of U.S. gun ownership in two decades, Americans own an estimated 265 million guns, more than one gun for every American adult. The survey estimates that 133 million of these guns are concentrated in the hands of just 3% of American adults – a group of super-owners who have amassed an average of 17 guns each. The median gun owner owns two guns, 8 percent of all gun owners own 10 or more guns, and these owners account for about 40 percent of the gun stock. One in every three Americans—including one in three children—currently live in homes with firearms. Twenty-two percent of current U.S. gun owners who acquired a gun within the past two years did so without background checks. Will the passion and resolve of the Parkland survivors move the hypocrites to act morally rather than venally? Will jaded politicians muster the courage to defy their hood ornament and rid us of this proliferation of assault weaponry. Will they tell him it’s insane to put loaded weapons in the hands of 3.2 million teachers in 98,200 public schools who are there to educate 51 million students? Will they defy him and the NRA for the kids? Will they do it for the LGBT community? Will they do it for concert goers? The office workers? Can they be moved to do more than paper the issue over with a little window dressing and call it solved? Will they act to end the epidemic? Will anyone act to make America safe? The tectonic plates may be shifting. The passionate eloquence of Parkland students and parents has caused a disturbance in the status quo. Tv talking heads are talking to them and taking them seriously. Can the NRA’s political whores be far behind? Just this week dozens of major corporations pulled the plug on their NRA alliances. These include Delta Airlines, United Airlines; the Hertz, Avis, Alamo, Enterprise, and National car rental companies; First National Bank of Omaha; Allied Van Lines, North American Van Lines; Starkey Hearing Technologies; Met Life; Chubb; TruCar; SimpliSafe Home Security; Symantec; Wyndham Worldwide; and Best Western. It’s time. Time for me to pull my angry head out of the sand and take responsibility for the safety of our children and our communities. We have a long history of civil action and, when necessary, civil disobedience to effect moral and political change in this country. I marched, canvassed, and protested the Vietnam War, and it finally ended. I marched in Washington and Los Angeles to protest the Bush Iraq fiasco. I’ve written numerous letters and made calls to members of Congress and the President to end wars and protest unjust policies. But I grew inured to the daily assault on the Constitution and civil discourse. Now - I’m woke. Let’s make change. On March 24th I will again take to the streets to March For Our Lives to end gun violence and mass shootings; to ban assault weapons, and insist on universal background checks for all gun sales. I mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore! #NeverAgain Here are some resources and organizations. March for Our Lives: https://marchforourlives.com/ The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence: https://www.csgv.org/ Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence: http://lawcenter.giffords.org/ Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence: http://www.bradycampaign.org/ Manchin-Toomey Gun Proposal: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o- meter/article/2013/apr/30/summary-manchin-toomey-gun-proposal/ Thu, 08 Mar 2018 11:37:00 -0700http://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/are-private-high-schools-better-than-public-high-schoolshttp://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/are-private-high-schools-better-than-public-high-schoolsAre private high schools better than public high schools? In Los Angeles tuition and fees at the most exclusive non-residential private high schools ranges between $38,000 and $41,000 a year. Annual tuition at the top Los Angeles Catholic high schools is between $17,000 and $20,000. In other words, private high school tuition is comparable to many private colleges, and much higher than tuition and fees to a University of California campus. 2016/2017 tuition and fees for UCLA is about $15,000. Is private high school worth the price of admission? Do college bound students at private high schools perform better in college? Do they have greater job satisfaction? Palisades Charter High School senior (and College Pathways client) Clara Epstein wrote a provocative, well researched article for her school magazine that might surprise you. If you’re considering forking over the price of a new Lexus every year for tuition for your high school student, or the equivalent of a down payment on a nice condo in Costa Rica for two or three kids, take a look at Clara’s article before you decide. Private LiesIt’s a familiar stereotype: overcrowded classrooms, lazy, incompetent teachers, a drug-smuggling black market and daily fights. Public school. There’s an equally distorted perception of private school: rich, entitled brats, strict discipline and a more expensive black market. But this isn’t about disproving those stereotypes. This is about debunking the myth that private school students are … Continue reading Mon, 01 Aug 2016 11:30:00 -0700http://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/life-lessons-swim-hard-marry-wellhttp://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/life-lessons-swim-hard-marry-wellTwo recent events caught my attention and both resonated with the message we send to students regarding their writing, especially application essays. Both incidents exposed hypocrisy in how the written word is valued and evaluated, and both reek of class bias and institutional hypocrisy. One example was immediately exposed, and the other is obscured by a crime so heinous the writing example wasn’t even on the radar.The Princess Gets a PassOn the first night of the Republican National Convention Melania Trump read a heartfelt speech from the teleprompter praising her husband as a kind and caring person, a true American, and a hard worker. Then she went on to talk about her own values and her dreams for America’s children in a section she plagiarized from Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention speech. Plagiarism is the cardinal sin of writing. Fareed Zakaria was suspended from Time and CNN in 2012 for plagiarism, Jayson Blair was fired from the New York Times for it in 2003, and Joe Biden withdrew from his presidential bid in 1988 for it. If schools didn’t feel plagiarism was rampant among students, companies like Turnitin and Grammarly would be out of business.However, there weren’t any consequences for Mrs. Trump. She smiled confidently and blurted out her stolen text in front of twelve million people, then took a victory lap. Her cheat was exposed within minutes, and she wasted no time barricading herself in silence behind her husband’s wall. The Trump machine and the broadcast pundits immediately exonerated her, saying everything from “don’t believe your lyin’ eyes” (the Trump machine), to “fire the speech writer, the campaign is disorganized” (MSNBC and CNN pundits), even though she had earlier stated publically to Matt Lauer that she had written the speech herself. So of course the pundits concluded that she must be lying about that too; she just couldn’t say publicly she’d received help, so she had to lie. No one was fired for Melania’s plagiarism and she never apologized. She got a pass: a free ride that no seventh grader would have gotten for copying a history report.Why did Melania get a plagiarism pass? She’s rich, her husband is a mogul presidential candidate who can make and break careers, she’s shy, she means no harm, and she’s unfamiliar with American politics. She’s also pretty and delicate, more Barbie than Barbarella. All of this played into the Melania zeitgeist. She escaped sanction because she’s a member of a special class, a throwback to past decades of sexually objectified princesses; the white, comfortably not smart, protected women of movie stars and captains of industry. And since Trump keeps her locked up in his tower, she is presumably not up to the task of being a good politician’s wife in public. Expectations are low for her and she doesn’t disappoint. She reinforces the image of the dimwitted pageant princess in a bikini and high heels with nothing consequential to say. Anything she does is a plus; even copying someone else’s homework. “Oops, did I say what she said? Is that a bad thing?” MSNBC’s Joy Reid nailed it seconds after the scandal broke commenting on air, “Ask yourself if Michelle Obama would have been given a pass had she done the same thing in 2008?”But Melania Trump isn’t Michelle Obama; the same standards don’t apply. Melania is in a special class reserved for rich, white, pampered princesses who pose no threat to the status quo. Ethics don’t apply to RWPP’s. But Turnitin wasn’t built to catch RWPP’s. Plagiarism is a serious offense if you’re a kid trying to pass a class, get a job, or get into college. If you’re that kid, and not a Melania Trump, your entire future hangs in the balance every time you think about copying and pasting part of a Wikipedia article. Try explaining the Melania principal to a kid desperately searching for his or her own essay voice.Melania Trump/Michelle Obama Speech ComparisonStanford Reprobate Lacks SkillsWe almost never get to read the essays of students admitted to prestigious universities. Each year a few excellent essays are published by media, usually touting the life story and achievements of unique or extraordinary students. But for the most part the essays that worked for the anointed few are never revealed. We assume that anyone admitted to an Ivy or other elite institution must be a brainiac over-achiever and an accomplished writer, perhaps even a deep thinker. In January of this year we saw a writing sample of a privileged Stanford freshman, one of only 5% admitted in 2014, that not only undermines that assumption, but exposes the hypocrisy highly selective institutions engage in to serve their own agenda.The circumstances under which we saw his writing sample were horrific. In January, 2015 he was caught attempting to rape an unconscious woman on the Stanford campus behind a dumpster at 1:00 am. He was a Stanford swimmer, an Olympic hopeful. He was highly recruited in high school and and was reported to be a top student. In March, 2016 he was convicted of three felonies including assault with intent to commit rape. After his conviction the Stanford defendant wrote a letter to the court explaining in his own words what happened and expressing his remorse. His remorse was mostly over excessive drinking and making the poor decision to follow his teammates to a party where everyone was drunk and dancing on tables. He said he was sorry for any harm that came to the woman, who though unconscious and injured, had consented to his actions. He just really wished he hadn’t had so much to drink. He never admitted to, or expressed any remorse for the rape that two good Samaritans stopped in progress.The Stanford swimmer received a six month sentence which was six years less than the prosecution asked for and thirteen years less than the maximum sentence. The judge says he was influenced by the swimmer’s statement in awarding such a light sentence. When I read this I thought the defendant’s statement must have been a doozy. A jury convicted him of three felonies including attempted rape, for which the judge (a Stanford alum) gave him only six months jail time, so the letter had to be a Pulitzer caliber mea culpa. And then I read it.The letter reveals a complete lack of remorse for the life altering physical, emotional, and psychological damage he did to the victim, coupled with an insipid, self serving statement about how much he had suffered since getting caught raping an unconscious woman. It reads like a middle school essay on the level of, how I spent my summer vacation. The theme is something like, “What a bummer, man.” There’s a paucity of critical thinking skills. It’s riddled with grammar and awkward syntax that panders to some preconceived notion of what the reader wants to hear. It is inauthentic, wrong headed, misses the point of the exercise, and exemplifies his superficial values.My first reaction was shock at how clueless the guy is; he really doesn’t get that he committed a violent sexual assault on an innocent woman. Then it hit me that he been admitted to Stanford just nine months before. He writes like an average, or below average, high school freshman, yet he was one of the five percent of applicants Stanford admitted in 2015. But it didn’t matter to the institution because – he swims fast. Stanford received 42,877 applications in his year and admitted 2,144. They couldn’t have known that he was a moral reprobate, but surely his college essays revealed that he had weak critical thinking and writing skills: far, far below what one would expect of a Stanford student. He couldn’t even execute a meaningful, authentic, well written statement designed to save himself some jail time when he had days and days with nothing else to do. If Stanford put a sample of this guy’s writing on their admission website and said, “Hey, do this. This is what we’re looking for,” they’d get a million applications. It’s just one more example of the shameful hypocrisy in selective college admissions. They adjusted their standards down for a guy who’s obviously not the sharpest blade in the drawer, but a guy who might bring the institution some swimming pool glory. The message to all those aspiring to the most selective colleges might as well be, forget about critical thinking and writing well, just do your laps and get your heat times down.Of course colleges always have, and always will, lower admission standards for athletes; and society will always make excuses for rich pampered princesses. In the meantime, the rest of us will actually have to learn how to think critically and express ourselves in clearly articulated language without plagiarizing. The next time I sit down with a kid who wants to apply to a selective college my first two questions will be, “How fast are you?” and “Who’s your sugar daddy?”Brock Turner Written Statement to CourtTue, 26 Jul 2016 11:30:00 -0700http://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/the-new-sathttp://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/the-new-satIn last month’s IECA Insights magazine, Jed Applerouth, founder of Applerouth Tutoring Services, wrote a straight forward assessment of the new SAT. He says it will be “the hardest SAT we’ve ever seen and significantly harder than the ACT.” The new SAT is designed to coordinate with the Common Core curriculum, and according to Applerouth, it “may intimidate certain students and drive them toward alternative assessments.” One thing is for sure; it will require educators and students to rethink the test prep timeline.You can read Jed Applerouth’s article here:Advising Your Students About the New SATTue, 14 Apr 2015 11:30:00 -0700http://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/career--assessment-expert-emily-pennington-joins-college-pathwayshttp://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/career--assessment-expert-emily-pennington-joins-college-pathwaysI’m excited to announce the addition of career and assessment expert Emily Pennington to the College Pathways team. Emily holds an M.S. in College Counseling and Student Development from Azusa Pacific University. She has worked as a Career Counselor at Azusa Pacific University, the University of La Verne, and Loyola Marymount University and has years of experience helping high school and college students identify their passions and their paths. College Pathways will include Emily’s service as part of the all-inclusive college admission service package, or as a separate service for students who just need more insight into career planning or curriculum guidance. Emily will help answer the questions: What should I do? What should I take? Where should I go? Her specialties include career counseling, assessment interpretation, assessment evaluation, and major selection. She is an expert in career assessments, including MBTI, Strong Interest Inventory, and StrengthsQuest. “I believe that career counseling is holistic in nature and therefore take a long-term and thorough approach in helping students.”To find out more about career counseling and assessment at College Pathways call 866-769-4944 or email us at info@college-pathways.com.Sun, 08 Jun 2014 11:30:00 -0700http://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/scotus-kos-race-sensitivity-in-college-admissions--quit-yer-whininhttp://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/scotus-kos-race-sensitivity-in-college-admissions--quit-yer-whininOn April 22nd the Supreme Court decided that race could not be used as a factor in college admission if the majority of the voters in a state decided to prohibit it. In 1996 California voters passed Proposition 209 ending any considerations of race or ethnicity in public university admissions sending affirmative action to its grave. The recent Supreme Court case (Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action) affirmed a similar Michigan law passed in 2006. If voters in a state want to pass a law making affirmative action legal then the Supreme Court is presumably okay with it. Slavery, Jim Crow, Redlining, recent attacks on voting rights targeted at racial minorities – none of that matters because as Chief Justice Roberts says, “things have changed dramatically” since the voting rights act was passed fifty years ago. As he and the majority of the court see it, there’s no justification for racial sensitivity in college admissions. Of course it’s okay to consider other factors such as children of faculty or staff, athletes, legacies, or in the case of California, whether an applicant is a non-tax paying out of state resident. The University of California actually recruits non-resident applicants because they pay about double what a resident pays and therefore are admitted at much higher rates than the sons and daughters of California taxpayers. Some might call that preferential treatment.The Supreme Court tells us that if we want to add race to the admissions mix we just need to pass a law. And in Judge Roberts’ Pollyanna world where racism and discrimination have gone the way of T-Rex not only is a race sensitive admissions policy unnecessary, it’s entirely possible to pass a law if we want it. Is it? Really? What group has the resources to mount a pro-affirmative action initiative campaign in California or Michigan? Riddle me this Judge, why is enrollment of minorities at public universities in Michigan down 25% since the 2006 law was passed?I’ve had two encounters with parents this week that would suggest Judge Roberts’ proclamation that things have changed dramatically is, well…premature. A few days ago I met with a very nice white family who live in a very nice beige house on a paved hill in a gated community. Mom had called me to say that her son worked better with men and since I was the only male college counselor in the area she guessed she was “stuck” with me by default. Actually, she’d seen a presentation by a male counselor that “blew her socks off”, but she couldn’t locate him and did I know a counselor named Denny. I told her I don’t know Denny, but maybe she should continue looking for him. She said she was bad at computers and was tired of searching for him, so I suggested we meet and perhaps I would make such a sterling impression she would forget all about Denny and would feel better about being stuck with me.During our meeting I explained that I had done a six month practicum for my college counseling certificate at the fifth largest public high school in the country. When I said the name of the high school mom perked up. She had graduated from that very same school and was curious to know what it was like because the neighborhood had changed a lot since she grew up there. The high school has over 5,000 students of which at least 80% are undocumented and about 90% qualify for the federal school lunch program. “Undocumented?” “Yes,” I replied, “mostly Latino.” Her face immediately seized up, scrunched into a persimmon scowl as if she’d just tasted excrement. She remained frozen in that doo-doo scrunch for several seconds until I finally said, “Why are you making that face?” She rolled her eyes like I was crazy, and blurted out to her fourteen year old son, “you don’t have to deal with that at your school.” She’s right, of course. At his school there aren’t any poor undocumented Latino kids, just drugs and drunk drivers.Then the day after the Supreme Court decision a man named White (I’m not kidding) called me to say that his daughter had applied to transfer from a local community college to UCLA and had been rejected. She was a great student who’d done everything required of her and had a 3.3 gpa. He was mad as hell and wanted an advocate: someone who would take on UCLA and get the decision reversed. I explained that UCLA was now one of the most selective colleges in the country with an admit rate of about 18% and that unless there was new evidence not previously disclosed on her application an appeal would fail. But his girl was losing out to blacks who have it easier in admissions at UCLA. Blacks? Easier? At UCLA? Let’s forget for the moment that eighteen years ago California passed Proposition 209 making affirmative action illegal at UCLA. Of the 18% of applicants UCLA admitted, 26% were white and 4% were black. But Mr. White believes that his daughter was discriminated against and that blacks received preferential treatment by UCLA admissions. He referred to an article in the LA Times that reported that 27% of Hispanics had been admitted, the first time UCLA admitted more Hispanics than whites, which might be alarming except that Latinos comprise 39% of the California population, the largest ethnic group in our state. Finally, he admitted that his daughter got a D in a crucial course but that it wasn’t her fault.I realize that an anecdotal sampling of two proves nothing. But my encounters with Ms. Persimmon Face and Mr. White suggest that there’s no reason to believe Prop 209 will ever be reversed at the ballot box. In fact, last month a group of Asian American state legislators blocked a move in the California legislature to overturn part of Prop 209.So if you’re Black or Latino, please understand that Justices Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, Alito, and Breyer; and Mr. White and Ms. Persimmon Face, have nothing against you. They all saw “12 Years a Slave”, and they agree that Cesar Chavez probably does deserve that street named after him in East L.A. But come on now, get over it. Get a firm grip on your bootstraps and pull hard, because that’s how the rest of us did it. You don’t need race sensitive admission policies. Judge Roberts said the country has moved beyond it.Postscript: I never heard from Ms. Persimmon Face or Mr. White again.Thu, 24 Apr 2014 11:30:00 -0700http://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/financial-aid-expert-bill-smith-joins-college-pathwayshttp://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/financial-aid-expert-bill-smith-joins-college-pathwaysI’m thrilled to welcome top financial aid expert Bill Smith to the College Pathways team. With a unique background creating online financial aid calculators for colleges with large endowments, Bill brings one of a kind expertise to financial aid consulting. As he worked with more and more colleges he became an expert at calculating need: determining the EFC (Expected Family Contribution) using both the FAFSA and the CSS Profile methodologies. He also became an expert in “packaging,” the process colleges use to determine how much merit and need based aid to award, and the mix of gift aid, loans, and work-study. Bill’s early work made him the “go-to” resource when the federal government mandated that all colleges post online financial aid calculators in 2011, which are now called Net Price Calculators. He authored and co-authored two definitive white papers on NPCs, and has spoken on financial aid issues at forums sponsored by the College Board, admissions and financial aid professional associations, and high schools. Now Bill brings his financial aid expertise to help prospective college students and their families. He helps them estimate how much colleges are likely to charge them based on their unique academic and economic profile, how to select colleges where they may qualify for aid, and how to understand and manage the cost of college. Bill holds a BA from Williams College and an MBA from Northwestern University.If you’ve been reluctant to apply for financial aid because you believe you won’t qualify, or are intimidated by the process, call College Pathways at 866-769-4944 or email us at info@college-pathways.com, and let us help you discover your options.Tue, 25 Mar 2014 11:30:00 -0700http://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/mi-fafsa-es-su-fafsa-when-something-is-nothinghttp://www.college-pathways.com/blog/post/mi-fafsa-es-su-fafsa-when-something-is-nothingThe deadline for submitting the FASFA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) to the UC and Cal State systems is March 2nd. Many private universities have similar deadlines. For those of you who are new to the financial aid maze, the FAFSA is the financial aid application used by colleges to determine eligibility for need based federal financial aid, i.e., grants, low interest loans, and work study. In California the FAFSA must be submitted for the student to be eligible for a Cal Grant and the new California Middle Class Scholarship. The Middle Class Scholarship is for undergraduate students from families with incomes up to $150,000 who attend a University of California or Cal State campus. Grants and scholarships do not have to be repaid. That’s free money for college, folks.If you’re on the fence about applying because you believe your income is too high and/or you have too many assets here are a few general tips to keep in mind.Tip #1 – Submit the FAFSA. It’s free. You cannot benefit if you stay on the sidelines. That’s not really a tip, but it’s good advice.Tip #2 – Income and assets of the student are assessed at a higher rate in the FAFSA formula than parent income and assets. As a general rule save money in the parent’s name, unless it’s in 529K savings account with the student as the beneficiary and parent as custodian.Tip #3 – When Something is Nothing – The FAFSA does not include home equity at all in its formula. Even if you have millions in equity in your primary residence the FAFSA will not count it. Do not include home equity when you answer the question about the net worth of your investments. Home equity = Zero on the FAFSA.Tip #4 – When Something is Nothing – If you own or control more than 50% of a small business or farm that employs fewer than 100 employees do not include it when you answer the question about net worth of current business. Small business worth = Zero on the FAFSA.Tip #5 – When Something is Nothing – Retirement assets are not used in the FAFSA need calculation. This includes 401K plans, pension funds, annuities, non-education IRAs, and Keogh Plans. Retirement assets = Zero on the FAFSA.Tip #6 – If you are divorced or legally separated and your student does not live with you more than 50% of the time, then you do not report your income and assets on the FASFA. Only income and assets of the custodial parent are used in the FAFSA formula. This does not mean the parent with legal custody, or the parent who claims the child as a dependent on the tax return. Only the parent with whom the child lived more than the half time during the past year must report income and assets.Tip #7 – Report Adjusted Gross Income. Do not report total income. If you estimate income in order to submit the FAFSA by the deadline, be sure not to overestimate your Adjusted Gross Income.Tip #8 – File the FAFSA on time.Tip #9 – Don’t leave answers blank. If the answer is zero or not applicable enter zero in the space.Tip #10 – To learn more about other tips that may help you in the need based FAFSA formula call College Pathways at 866-769-4944, or see more about paying for college on the College Pathways website.Sun, 09 Feb 2014 10:30:00 -0700